We tell now how the Tang elder seized Pilgrim in one grip and scolded him, saying, 「You monkey-head, you will be the death of me! How could you say such a thing — that I should take a wife here while you go west to worship Buddha?

He waits until the officials are gone and then physically takes hold of his disciple, which is as close to violence as Tripitaka ever comes. 弄殺我也 is everyday hyperbole — you are killing me. 招婚 is the same husband-joins-the-wife's-household marriage the Grand Preceptor called 招贅. In 一把 the 一 shifts to yì before the dipping tone of 把.

I would sooner die than do such a thing.」

就死也不敢 — even if it meant death, he would not dare. Eight characters, and the flattest, most absolute sentence Tripitaka speaks in the chapter.

「Set your mind at rest, Master,」 said Pilgrim. 「Does Old Monkey not know your disposition? But having come to this place and met these people, we cannot but meet their plan with a plan of our own.」

將計就計 is still in daily use, and it is the exact English of "turn their own plan against them" — take the scheme they are running and ride it. 將 is jiāng, the "take" that introduces the thing being handled. 不得不 takes 得 as dé in the fixed double negative "cannot but," and both 不 keep bù.

「What do you mean, meet their plan with a plan?」 said Tripitaka.

叫做 introduces a term of art, and Tripitaka's question is the cue for the long exposition that follows — the longest single piece of tactical explanation the novel ever gives Pilgrim.

Pilgrim said, 「If you dig in your heels and refuse her, she will not countersign the passport, and will not let us go on our way.

The argument opens on the document, which is where Pilgrim's mind has been all along. 使住法兒 is to work a holding trick — to stall. 法兒 takes 兒 as the small-and-familiar ending er; 倒換 takes 倒 as dǎo.

And should her intent turn cruel and her heart malicious, she may shout an order to a crowd of them to cut off your flesh and make it up into scent-bags of some sort — and what good end should we come to then?

香袋 is a scented sachet worn at the belt — a deliberately domestic, almost decorative image for being cut to pieces, and the mismatch is the point. 喝令 takes 喝 as hè, to shout, not the hē of drinking; 甚麼 takes 甚 as shén.

We should certainly have to put out the powers we use for subduing demons and sweeping away monsters. You know how heavy our hands and feet are and how fierce our weapons; let us but stir a hand, and every soul in this kingdom would be beaten dead.

The boast is also a confession: the disciples have exactly one method and it does not scale down. 降魔 takes 降 as xiáng, to subdue — not the jiàng of 降旨 and 降臨 in the court passages, where the same character means "send down." 手腳又重 takes 重 as zhòng, heavy; 手兒 takes 兒 as er; in 一定 the 一 shifts to yí before the falling tone of 定.

They may block our way, but they are not monsters or goblins — they are the human bodies of a whole nation;

Here is the sentence that decides everything. The party's whole licence to kill rests on a distinction between demons and people, and in Western Liang the distinction does not hold: 卻不是怪物妖精, 還是一國人身 — not monsters, but the human bodies of a whole nation. 阻當 takes 當 as dǎng, to block. The chapter writes this same word both ways — 阻當 here and 阻擋 a little further on in the same speech — which is the 1592 edition's own evidence that the two spellings were interchangeable. 還是 takes 還 as hái.

and you have always been a man given to kindness and compassion, who has not harmed a single living thing along the road. If we were to beat dead a countless number of ordinary people, how could your heart bear it? It would be a great unkindness indeed.」

平人 are ordinary civilians — the technical opposite of the demons the party is licensed to kill. 一靈不損, not one soul harmed, keeps 一 as yì before the rising tone of 靈; 誠為 takes 為 as wéi. Pilgrim is arguing his master out of resistance by appealing to his master's own scruple, which is the sharpest thing in the speech.

Tripitaka heard him out and said, 「Wukong, that is the best of arguments.

此論最善 concedes on moral ground, which is the only ground on which Tripitaka can be moved. He has not yet asked what the plan is.

But I fear the sovereign lady will take me within and require of me the rites of husband and wife. How could I consent to lose my primal yang and ruin the virtue proper to the household of the Buddha?

喪元陽 — to lose the primal yang — is the inner-alchemy term for the loss of the seminal essence, and in this novel that is a catastrophe of physics before it is a moral lapse. Think of it as a battery charge accumulated over years of practice and discharged in a night. The queen's country lacks yang; his fear is of being the one to supply it.

To let my true essence run out, and so fall from the human body my own teaching gave me?」

走真精 and 喪元陽 name the same event twice in the language of inner alchemy, and 人身 — the human body, hardest of all the rebirths to obtain — is what is staked on it. 墜落 takes 落 as luò, its fixed reading here, rather than the là that belongs to the "leave behind" sense; 本教 takes 教 as jiào, doctrine.

Pilgrim said, 「If today you grant the match, she will certainly set forth her equipage with imperial ceremony and come out of the city to receive you.

The plan begins here and runs unbroken for ten segments. 准了親事 is the formal granting of a suit; in 一定 the 一 shifts to yí before the falling tone of 定.

Do not decline any further. Take your seat in her phoenix carriage and dragon chariot, mount the hall of treasure, and sit down facing south.

面南坐下 is to take the throne — a ruler faces south. Pilgrim is instructing a monk to accept a crown as a step in a manoeuvre, and does not pause over it. 更 is gèng.

Ask the queen to bring out the imperial seal, summon us brothers into court, set the seal upon the passport, and then have the queen write her own signature and flourish; when it is signed, let it be handed over to us.

A document-control procedure specified with a precision the novel usually keeps for combat. 花押 is the personal flourish a signatory drew instead of writing a name — a hand-drawn signature — and 僉押 is the act of putting it on. 進朝 takes 朝 as cháo; both 了 mark completed action.

On the other side, have a banquet laid out; let it serve at once as your wedding feast with the queen and as a send-off for us.

One banquet is made to do two contradictory offices, which is the plan in miniature. 一壁廂 means "on the one hand" or "meanwhile," introducing an action running in parallel with the last, and its 一 shifts to yí before the falling tone of 壁. 就當 takes 當 as dàng, to count or serve as, against the dǎng of 阻當 earlier in this same speech.

When the banquet is over, call for the equipage again, saying only that you are seeing the three of us out of the city and will come back to be joined with the queen.

只說 is "say only" — give this out as the reason. The lie is specified exactly, and Tripitaka raises no objection to it, having already accepted the argument about the lives of ordinary people.

Cajole ruler and ministers alike into good humour, so that they have no thought of hindering us and conceive no malicious design.

哄得 takes 得 as the linking de; 更 is gèng. 阻擋 is written here with the character the modern standard prefers, against the 阻當 used earlier in the same speech — the same word, both spellings, inside one passage.

Then, when you have seen us outside the walls, get down from the dragon chariot and phoenix carriage; have Sha Monk attend at your side and help you mount the white horse;

Sha Monk gets the one job in the plan that requires nobody to be deceived, which is a fair summary of his function in the novel. 伺候 is cì hòu, to wait upon.

and Old Monkey will work a body-fixing spell, so that ruler, ministers and all of them can move no more, and we shall go straight on west along the high road.

定身法 is the freezing spell Pilgrim has used on demons and lesser mortals throughout the journey. Turned on an entire court, it is the least violent tool he owns. 法兒 takes 兒 as er; 教 is jiào.

When we have travelled a day and a night, I will recite a charm, undo the spell, and let ruler and ministers come to themselves and go back to the city.

That Pilgrim plans the release as carefully as the escape is the moral core of the scheme. 行得 takes 得 as the linking de; in 一晝夜 the 一 shifts to yí before the falling tone of 晝; 解 is jiě, to loose; 還 is hái.

In the first place their lives are not harmed; in the second your primal spirit takes no injury.

一則…二來 is the set pair for counting off points — firstly, secondly — and 一 keeps yī rather than shifting to yì as an ordinary numeral would. Both 不 keep bù. The two clauses state the two constraints the plan was built to satisfy, in the order Pilgrim ranks them: their lives first, his master's spirit second.

This is what is called the stratagem of a false match to escape the net. Is it not the excellence of one stroke that answers two ends?」

假親脫網 is the chapter's own name for its plot, and 網, the net, answers the 煙花圍困 of the opening poem, where the pilgrims were besieged by mist and flowers. The quotation marks here flag it as a term of art rather than a saying borrowed from elsewhere. In 一舉 the 一 shifts to yì before the dipping tone of 舉.

Tripitaka heard this and was like a drunken man just come to himself, like a sleeper just waking out of a dream; his gladness drove out his care, and thanking Pilgrim past all measure he said, 「I am deeply obliged to my worthy disciple's high discernment.」

如醉方醒, 似夢初覺 is a matched four-and-four figure for sudden clarity, and it exactly inverts the 低頭不語 and 越加痴啞 of the proposal scene. 似 is sì; 初覺 takes 覺 as jué, to wake or realise, not the jiào of sleep; 樂 is lè; 稱 is chēng; and 不 shifts to bú because a standing ruling raises 盡 from jǐn to jìn, giving it a falling tone.

The four were of one mind and one purpose, and were still deliberating together; of which we say no more.

同心合意 restores the party to the formation it held when the three disciples cleared the way through the marketplace. 商量 takes 量 as liáng, and 不題 closes the thread so the banquet can begin.